Law.Gov Proposes Open-Source Stash of All Primary US Legal Materials

An ambitious project to create an open-source authenticated repository of all primary legal materials in the United States is being proposed by Law.Gov.

Detailed by Law.Gov, the project is presently in a planning stage. A growing group of individuals and organizations including a number of well-known law schools and law professors expect to meet to discuss how it might be pursued and potentially develop a proposal for doing so.

“By primary legal materials,” Law.Gov explains, “we mean all materials that have the force of law and are part of the law-making process, including: briefs and opinions from the judiciary; reports, hearings, and laws from the legislative branch; and regulations, audits, grants, and other materials from the executive branch. Creating the system from open source software building blocks will allow states and municipalities to make their materials available as well.”